Tributes have poured in for “the brilliant” Graham Mackay, who died this week aged 64, eight months after being diagnosed with a brain tumour.
The former chairman of SABMiller, who built the company into the world’s second-largest brewer, was described as an “inspirational” leader and canny strategist who was “extraordinarily self-aware - to the extent of deep humility”.
Miles Morland, non-executive director of SABMiller, said: “His personal modesty and willingness to share credit with others could make those who were close to him forget what a giant he was.”
Another colleague added: “He treated everybody, at every level in the organisation, with the utmost dignity and respect.”
After training as an engineer in South Africa, Mackay joined South African Breweries in 1978 as a systems manager, rising through the ranks to become group MD in 1997. On becoming CEO two years later, he moved to the company’s HQ in London, raising £300m in international markets in order to embark on a rapid global expansion of the business.
Under his leadership,the company made rapid inroads across the world with a number of high-profile strategic acquisitions.
The 2002 acquisition of the USA’s second-biggest brewer Miller Brewing Company saw the company renamed SABMiller, and was followed by the purchase of South America’s second-biggest brewery, Bavaria, and a joint venture with Molson Coors in 2008 to strengthen its North American business. The company bought Foster’s in 2011 in a hostile takeover.
Mackay stepped down following surgery in April. He returned as non-executive chairman in September, but was forced to step back again last month when his condition worsened.
No comments yet